current.com/theyoungturks, and you will find who has won the thrilling conclusion. stay right here right now, because "viewpoint" with eliot spitzer is up next. ♪ good evening. i'm eliot spitzer and this is "viewpoint" where we drill down on the top stories of the day in search of facts that inform. reince preibus said if republicans have a problem with women, the main stream media is to blame. blame the media? prebus told bloomberg news: >> the democrats said we had a war on caterpillar every main stream media outlet talked about it, then we would have problems with caterpillar. the fact of the matter is it's a

fiction. >> no, it is not. look at what has been happening. rush limbaugh's vicious attack helped focus on the gop and women. and that came after republican dominated state legislators had already increased the tempo of their attack: some of these laws have been struck down by the courts and the obama campaign struck back at the rnc chair, stephanie cutler released a statement that read in part:

but while the november election may look grim for romny the road to the nomination may be clearing. a public policy poll has him five points ahead of santorum in pennsylvania. santorum who tried to slow romney's momentum today. romney made calls to supporters and welcomed ed gillespie to his team. joining me now staff writer arrin car moan, and dan white. arrin, let's start with you. the eh fore on the part of the republican party to deny there is in fact a war on women. assess it in terms of their credibility. this etch-a-sketch image is beginning. they are trying to recreate a

new and improved mitt romney. how does that strike you? >> i think you are totally right to bring up what happened in the state houses ever since republicans took over in 2010. one of the first things that the house-controlled gop did last year was almost shut down the entire government overdefunding planned parenthood. this is not an incidental thing. it has been on the back burner for a long time. they have been making this a priority. >> we could spend a long time going state by state and it has been quite remarkable as we just gave in summary the number of states where they have been trying to limit access but what is amazing to me is that mitt romney early in the campaign desperately wanted to avoid talking about this. he wanted rick santorum to be out there speaking to the

theological base. he got pulled into this over the past couple of months and he had to absorb and affirm rick santorum's right wing theological ideology. how can now separate himself from it? >> it appears that he can't. he followed rick santorum off of that cliff. nobody made him. and at this point he has to answer in the general election. >> can you pivot on a issue like this. it strikes many people when it comes to money somehow it's easier to say well, maybe i said this, now we're going to cut back a little bit because the economy has changed. this seems to be a more fundamental issue based upon morals and ethics. you can't be pro choice on monday and pro life we call it

anti-life on tuesday. >> he is not helped by the fact that the rnc chairman is making this ridiculous caterpillar analogy. they are trying to bring ann romney out, and soften him up a little bit. but when you have people speaking in this way about the right to women, and what the democrats are calling a war on women, i don't know if it is or not, but they certainly made it appear that there is a war on women in the republican party. >> arrin is it fair to say if rick santorum was the general in the war on women, mitt romney at least was a private. he didn't want to lead the charge or be the major strategist, because he knew this was going to do exactly what it has done. support for mitt romney among independent women has plummeted. 20-point swing. he was actually ahead of president obama back in december among independent women, now he is down by double digits.

he did not want this war to be waged, but he signed on. he volunteered to be in the army. so how are women go react? is this going to be a theme from now until november? >> last august president obama announced there would be a really constructive move in terms of access to reproductive rights. nobody made the republicans run after it. nobody made them create the blunt amendment, and certainly nobody made mitt romney make statements in support of it, in support of defunding title 10 in support of defunding planned parenthood. so i think he made his bed and he has to lie in it. >> let's talk about the caterpillar metaphor. is this one more instance of people being surrounded by mitt romney? he used the metaphor of the

etch-a-sketch, you guys are younger than i am you may not remember etch-a-sketch -- >> i remember. >> all right. you are making my feel better. but you can't think about the etch-a-sketch issue without saying that's the worst imagery a politician wants. and here the caterpillar. so how do you make sense of this? >> i'm less insulted by the republican choice of analogy as i am by their actual platform. be republicans say things like women can just close their eyes or women use rape as an excuse. sometimes they are bad analogies, bad use of lake wage but they are a gasp that shows you think really think about things. >> right. the truth is the most revealing excuse -- >> absolutely. >> what you just said is deeply important. the metaphor is less important

than what they have done. and what they have done is this fundamental cutback in access to health care, access to choice access to fundamental human rights. ben let's switch to another aspect of the political dynamic here which is the social issues in women's rights in particular seem to gain traction for the theological right which the economical issue which mitt romney wanted to talk about lost its traction a bit. >> it was complicate the narrative a bit if we're getting jobs numbers like we're getting tomorrow. how do you argue to run and fix an economy that already appears to be fixing itself. i think his argument will be i can do a better job. we'll do a number of thing that make this economy move faster than it is now. he wants to get away from these social issues. obviously he is having a hard time doing it, but he wants to

talk economics now that's a little bit more difficult for him. >> the first friday of every month, we have seven left between now and november those jobs will determine whether there is an economic argument to be made against president obama. is 200,000 for the president to claim victory? >> is it not enough to claim victory, because people don't feel that in their own lives. the question is, do more people start looking for work? does the denominator change to the point where 200,000 is not enough to get the unemployment rate going down. the bigger numbers will keep the trend. >> you are speaking to someone who is schooled in economics, when you are talk about the denominator you will say will the economy improve enough --

>> back into the job force. >> and you are really at a perverse moment where the economy could be getting better and so the unemployment rate goes up even though the economy has turned the corner. >> it's never a good sign for an incumbent if that is happening. >> only an economist would love this. when we're talking about women issues bad news is bad news. >> absolutely. >> wrem will be the determinate voters in this base. we have seen women who have been supportive of president obama, he is now ahead by double digits, does it matter as much to women as it does to men. >> nicky haley recently said women care about jobs and families. one of the things that allows

them to better care for their families is the ability to have dignity and autonomy over their lives, so i think they care about both. >> let's not jump yet to the november race because there are still these pesky primary candidates challenging mitt romney. is there anything he can do to get them out. he is saying please you are making my life crazy, i can't be an etch-a-sketch candidate if you are there? >> he can beat santorum in pennsylvania by a large margin. i don't think anything can get newt gingrich out. the question is does he see the writing on the wall does he look at those polls and say i really don't want thaem bare raszment. >> rick santorum has drawn his

line in the sand at pennsylvania even when he was losing the three states earlier this week. he was saying i can lose this state, but i'm going to win pennsylvania. if i win pennsylvania somehow that legitmized me. >> voters like to be with the winner. and they see the writing on the wall. they need the establishment of the party is loving to mitt romney not rick santorum. so his own voters in pennsylvania are saying we want to be with the guy who is going to win. so you have seen that shift ray way. and rick santorum has got to realize that. and the last time he was on the ballot in pennsylvania he lost to 18 points. >> that was in the general election not the republican primary. >> that's true. but it's the last time pennsylvania voters have a chance to weigh in -- >> okay. >> but does he want two of those

in his career? >> and rick santorum was a one-term senator from a state where he was -- i think it's fair to say -- he seemed out of step even with the republican party in pennsylvania. and where he has won is in the deep south that said they were voting on social values -- >> yeah, maybe get through pennsylvania and then texas and some other southern states. he has a plausible argument if he can win pennsylvania. but there are so many more that matter for romney. so there is no delegate math that works for santorum. >> put gingrich and santorum aside, i'm going to ask you to do something very hard when we come back, you probably don't ever want to vote for a mitt

romney. if you were his advisor what would you tell him to do to bridge this chasm that now exists with female voters. >> their solution seems to be putting out ann romney. i think at this point he is psyching himself up so much. this is a man who once bought planned parenthood's endorsement and now wants to defund it. i would say relax -- >> are you suggesting he has not come across as a natural campaigner? >> don't get crazy eliot, he is not in the least bit robotic. >> right. we'll see how this plays out. mitt romney i think will become the nominee but will become be meaningless if 200,000 jobs are created, there are so many fizz

fissures between mitt romney, i don't think he will be able to get the votes. >> the women that came out for obama in 2008 but stayed home in 2010, i think that will make the difference. >> insiders are not that enthusiastic about romney's chances. >> more than conventional wisdom everybody is muttering it under their breath. maybe myth and his wife think he can win. great to have you both on the program. thank you so much. >> thank you. coca-cola drops it membership in the american legislative exchange council. that could be their best decision since getting rid of new coke coming up. power of big ideas. nearly 300 years ago, the italian physicist alessandro volta accidentally discovered what we now call the battery. the device consisted of two different metals attached to a

frog's leg. when he applied a spark, the frog's leg moved. nowadays, batteries are essential components of our everyday lives. but mit's dr. sadoway is working on the next big leap forward, with something he calls a liquid battery. the liquid battery can make power plants more efficient and allow us to use renewable energy even when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. sadoway's battery works like a traditional one. but inside it, everything is liquid. so it can be scaled up to 400 times the size of a traditional battery. just as revolutionary as the frog's leg, but much more powerful. scion: what moves you.

coming up coca-cola drops its membership in the conservative legislative group alec. and the banks still don't get why people don't like them. i will explain it in terms even they can understand. ahead on "viewpoint." knowledge to build and maintain a race car. polymers, hydo-carbons, thermal plastics, math and science? you bet it is. many kids don't understand how important these subjects can be that's why time warner cable developed connect a million minds. to introduce kids in our communities to the opportunities these important skills. how can my car go faster?

maybe your child will figure it out. find out more at connectamillionminds.com coca-cola has joined its chief rival pepsico today in stopping its funding to alec, american legislative exchange council. you may recognize some of alec's work. it is claimed that alec had a hand in crafting florida's stand your ground, and boasts drafting 1,000 laws a year and it has been prominent in pushing voter

id laws. coke's move comes hours of color of change dot org launched an online petition to urging companies to stop. joining me now is reverend jesse jackson, political activist and founder and president of the rainbow push coalition. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, sir. >> seems to me and i have been prosecutor, governor, the whole bit, i had a hard time finding any evidence ever that there was any significant degree of voter fraud. on the other hand i did find an awful lot of evidence that there was fraud in the stock market. so this group alec is pushing to deregulate the stock market and put a whole bunch of new laws in

place to control voter fraud. what is going on here? >> those who are denied the right to vote have always found ways to undermine the impact of the vote. it may have been some form of reapportionment, but now they are going so far as to suppress the votes. i just left tennessee, in that state, 250,000 seniors do not have a photo id. about 300,000 have an id but no photo id. they are trying to cut the margin of people who vote. so we urge companies that understand this dynamic, if you have going to support the voter's right act, you cannot support alec.

coke and pepsi having made this move, i hope next time exxon mobil will join them. >> i want to start with the first observation that you made. the voter id laws which are being pushed by alec are very carely an effort to prevent minorities and the poor from voting. and these groups alec and others are pretty clear about their purpose. you have seen their statements. but what do you believe their real purpose is? >> it's to minister the impact of the vote. in 1992 and '96, bush got more white votes than clinton and he won. in 2000, gore won but he lost because of voter suppression

scheming. making voting accessible and open and fair. as we travel around the world, are they open fair and free? those principals should apply, eliot right here at home. >> and alec and others are very open they believe if there are fewer votes, they become more powerful. you succeeded in getting civil society, you succeeded in getting organizing forces to bring pressure to bear on coke and pepsi. how will you move that to other companies as well so they will not only drop their membership but then in other areas where we're pushing today? >> these companies if you support voter suppression, if you support the stand your ground laws support alec. if you do not, make a choice.

but color of change will make it real clear. what makes america great is the right to protest. when the big ball games take place between say kentucky and kansas state the planning field was even. the rules are public. the record was fair. that's the american way. let's run a democracy and end these schemes will super pacs buy politicians and alec and others suppress voting. >> are there states that use this voter id laws where so many hundreds of thousands of voters simply won't have them -- are there states still considering those law, and can you go company to company, and state to

state and say pull back? >> well, the department of justice has a role to play. in south carolina they determined the voter suppression schemes had a despairant impact on the voters. also seniors find it more difficult. those born by mid-wives did not have a photo id in the first place. but they used their light bill or gas bill. so if seniors on fixed net income have to buy a photo id they will not do it. student under 1974 if you lived in illinois you would have to either vote absentee or go home. in so these are schemes on the

mind, the democracy, and itself integrity. and in our democracy the winner should win the loser should lose, and we can live with the outcome. >> the question how do get those corporations and very wealthy deep pockets who are funding alec, how to get them to pull back -- >> coke and pepsi have lead the way. now wal-mart, if you support voter id laws make it difficult, if you support your stand your ground, stand with alec, but if you do make a choice. >> all right. let's certainly hope so. founder and president of the rainbow push coalition reverend jesse jackson. thank you so much for your time tonight. >> thank you, sir. >> mitt romney criticizes the

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[ male announcer ] cookies with smooth caramel and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter. attack on women that perhaps the majority of the population woke up? >> idaho is not known as approaching act i.v. you had hundreds of women show up, thousands signed petitions. they made their voices heard. what happens is that now, the

legislators are running scared. very similar laws have passed quietly in other states for the past 10 years, really in the past two years have intensified. pennsylvania a similar law was shelved, idaho this proved to be political poison. women are paying attention and having their voices heard. >> thanks for coming in. >> the aclu considers a demand that to get a job you have to let an employer open your private mail, the senate wants to make it illegal to hand over a password to your facebook account.

coming up congressman jerry had inner will on the gop whistle that is judicial activism. >> is myth the best candidate? no. >> president who i think is a nice guy but he spent too much time at harvard perhaps. >> everyone has been asking me since i was driving around in iowa to get out of the race. >> but he is the most candidate. >> i do believe in born-again virginity. >> the whole war on women really was invented to take people's eyes off of the prize. >> in the first place i would think unless someone makes their sexuality public it is none of

their business. >> >> in new york city a lot of our taxi drivers are [ inaudible ]. if you get one, are you going to give him a [ inaudible ]. [ laughter ] >> i give the same tip to everyone. >> a fresh start, so hopefully this year is the year that we actually -- we do something. >> mitt romney: ♪ america, america ♪ >> plus a mustache equals tony orlando. ♪ >> i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. [ laughter ] >> i don't know after seeing that tape, maybe he can make it on "american idol" after all. coming up the ceo of jpmorgan chase wonders out loud why

people don't like the banks. really, sir? you still don't know? we'll explain it coming up next. me and stephanie miller in the morning what a way to start the day.

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♪ >> this may seem like déjà vu all over again, the president signing a bill deregulating the banks. earlier this afternoon, president obama officially put his signature on the jumpstart our business startups act, known as the jobs act, but should really be called the bring proud to back to wall street act. and the victim ts? american investors.

here to discuss times columnist and co-author of "all the devils are here: the hidden history of the financial crisis," joe nocera. joe, an honor to have you here, your columns are spectacular and you vote one this week, a couple of days ago, which posed the question, the ceo of morgan chase posed to you in an elevator. why don't people like us the bankers? why don't we? >> they caused the financial crisis, and they are the ones who are walking away from the wreck. >> it seems to me the transaction that has brought the economy back, has been a one-way transaction. in other words we have bailed them out, and they don't seem to have either internalized the action that they did something wrong or modulated their behavior. >> i think there is some modulation, and given -- you know the benefit of some doubt,

they are doing some lending -- the pendulum swings you have a system where everything is too lose, and then everything is too tight. it's so hard to buy a house now for instance. or make large consumer purchases that require lending. the real problem is in the trading. i mean that's what has really reverted back to the old days. they are trying to water down the voelker rule and they are trying to do everything to unroll dodd-frank. and what hand today is part and parcel to that. >> when you say they are trading for their own book they are using the money that taxpayers give them or we permit them to get at low cost and creating their own trading platforms where they keep the upside so

it really was a one-way transaction to that extent. >> the voelker rule is intended to say, if you have federal backing and federal guarantee, you cannot trade simply for yourself, all of your trading has to be on behalf of clients, but the real profits during the run up for made for trading for yourself. these transactions that really -- they had no social purpose. they existed only so that one side could make a bet with the other side, and winner puts the money in the pocket and loser loses. they are pointless transactions really. >> if a hedge fund wants to do that, but it doesn't have a taxpayer guarantee, that's fine. >> right. and lots of hedge funds have failed. we don't care if a hedge fund makes a mistake. >> so the rule was put in place saying we're not going to let

you play with the taxpayer's money, make a choice between being a federally guaranteed entity or being a hedge fund. >> right. the hobbying effort going on around the voelker rule is one of the most intense efforts i have seen in 30 years in this business. >> and the president's signing is part and parcel of that. the transaction had been we'll bail you out, and now they are trying to undo the new regulatory machine. >> this set of rules and this bill really almost even transcend the current -- they are rolling back investor protections that are 10, 15 years old, they are rolling back one of the things you did as attorney general where you

helped create a chinese wall between what the analysts can say and what the investment bankers are doing. now we're going back to the days where an list can pump the stock to investors legally, it's reason unconscionable. >> and what has been lacking throughout this period has been genuine mortgage reform and if you were -- one might have said at least we're going to bail the banks out, write down enough of the face value of the mortgages so people can pay their mortgages. why has that not happened? >> the -- the main reason it hasn't happened -- there are several reasons. first of all the obama administration 3.5 years into the administration still doesn't have a housing policy. the other reason is they

are -- there is fear both in government, in regulatory apparatus and in the banks that if you start to write down principal, everybody will stop paying their mortgage. so the moral hazard issue, when it comes to individual home owners everybody is worrying oh my god if we give this homeowner a break, everybody would want a break. i don't think that would happen because of the effect it has on your credit card score but it's a real fear that nobody has been able to overcome. one quick thing. the attorney general settlement whatever its flaws, is an attempt to show the banking industry that the roof won't fall in if you give principal reduction. >> it took three and a half years at a minimum before this administration recognized the fundamental flaw that they were doing. they simply didn't get their

arms around the reality here. and moral hazard is raised the moment it is related to homeowners when it related to the big banks not such a big deal. look, joe, continue to write your absolutely spectacular articles. >> thank you. >> ""new york times"" columnist and coauthor thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> frosted in powerful cooling crystals. ice breakers frost. feel the frost.

♪ nearly four years after bringing the country to the brink of financial collapse the bank still don't get it. my view coming up. but first let's check in with governor jennifer grandholm to see what is coming up in "the war room." >> thanks eliot, tonight if you want the inside scoop what has been going on everybody going to

"politico." and we'll talk to white house economist about the jobs act. and we will continue current tv coverage on the war on women by giving the debate a different perspective than what you just talked about, from the viewpoint of a 16-year-old girl who is a columnist for "huffington post." >> ask austin what his prediction for the jobs is tomorrow. >> you are writing my questions for me. >> happy to do it. more "viewpoint" coming up next. have a good show, jennifer. >> thank you.ttv